3D Site model - how to?

[dlparisi]

Does anyone have any good tips or a general workflow for modeling complex sites (i.e. not flat with roads, curbs, sidewalks, etc)? I have the topo lines from autocad that show the elevations along with the roads and curbs. I normally model everything in Autocad but these 3D sites can become a bear in autocad real quick with triangulated meshes, etc. so I'm looking to do it in Viz this time (actually Viz2005 but I'd upgrade if necessary). The terrain object seems OK to get the general 3d topography but I'm at a loss for how to get roads, curbs, etc to match up to this topography and also not be interfereing with it such as overlapping faces. Do you use the straight modeling tools in Viz/Max or are there some good plugins to accomplish this?

Thanks for any help,
David

[gilpo]

I second this question.

We end up modeling all our sites flat with 3d 'blocks' for mounds and other topography. However, we would like to eventually show true 3D terrain with sloping roads and curves.

[Neilg]

Re: 3D Site model - how to?

The terrain object seems OK to get the general 3d topography but I'm at a loss for how to get roads, curbs, etc to match up to this topography

Shapemerges & lofts, theres not much to it.

[mikeh]

Re: 3D Site model - how to?

David,
I work for a civil engr and all i do is work with 3d sites. The standard workflow is to get the 3d lines from our earthwork dept as autocad 3d lines. Then i mesh it out using Eaglepoint...other people that do the same work as me, use Civil image.
Viz's terrain tool is the worst thing to use because it ignores lines completely giving you bad models.
From there, everything is brought into Viz/max and chopped up using booleans and shapemerge from the 2d cad file. I've done work for other civil engrs and the workflow is always the same. They generate the 3d lines and i mesh it out.
mh